Don't shoot a lot of sports, but I have two young boys coming up so I thought I better start practicing. These were lit by a single AB400 bounced off ceiling. D700/85 1.8. I only shot from one end and one side of the court. Taking my second strobe next outing to give myself some room to move.

I have a couple of advantages in this particular gym. 1st - It's small 2nd - There are raised platforms behind both goals that allow me to get the strobe really close to the ceiling for some great bounce.

Thanks for the replies and I'm gonna stay at it. Pee-wee tournament Sat. in the same gym.

kwhitt wrote:
I have a couple of advantages in this particular gym. 1st - It's small 2nd - There are raised platforms behind both goals that allow me to get the strobe really close to the ceiling for some great bounce.

Thanks for the replies and I'm gonna stay at it. Pee-wee tournament Sat. in the same gym.

kwhitt, these are very nice and clean, I intend on using ab's to bounce for hs wrestling, and this is pretty much the same look I am aiming at. I was told that I could not use them in the manor I invision, which is to just have them fill a little and gain a little lattitude in reducing down from maximum iso. I was thinking I would achieve the look I want which is a natural ambient light look, not strobed look. I was planning on trying to achieve this with iso 800-1600 and shutter around 200-250, whatever max is with my trigger/ab combo.

If you don't mind, what settings were you using to achive this beautiful balance of strobe and ambient(or so it seems there is ambient still around), and what f stop were you using. Should you be so curteous to share your knowledge, I thank you in advance... and please keep sharing, I am inspired that I can achieve the desired look I want.

Let me start by saying that this was my very first attempt strobing in this area of photography. Now, to begin I set my strobe on a platform behind the goal and to the left if you are facing it from the court. Then I aimed it to where I thought the bounce would fill from the top of the key to the goal, placed it on full power.

Setting the camera, i set aperature at f4, ss 250 and took a shot of the gym without strobe at ISO400. I could barely make out the players. This is where I started shooting but didn't like the depth of field (I am a Portrait photographer) so the pictures posted here are actually at ISO 200, F2.2, SS 250. I didn't change anything at the Strobe. I was careful to watch for ghosting which will creep in as ambient light increases.

Like I said earlier though, at this gym I can get the strobe within 12ft of the ceiling and it is white, I can't imagine every instance to be the same. What I've learned more than anything is "Don't be afraid of failure and go for it."

lwrnclightner wrote:
kwhitt, these are very nice and clean, I intend on using ab's to bounce for hs wrestling, and this is pretty much the same look I am aiming at. I was told that I could not use them in the manor I invision, which is to just have them fill a little and gain a little lattitude in reducing down from maximum iso. I was thinking I would achieve the look I want which is a natural ambient light look, not strobed look. I was planning on trying to achieve this with iso 800-1600 and shutter around 200-250, whatever max is with my trigger/ab combo.

If you don't mind, what settings were you using to achive this beautiful balance of strobe and ambient(or so it seems there is ambient still around), and what f stop were you using. Should you be so curteous to share your knowledge, I thank you in advance... and please keep sharing, I am inspired that I can achieve the desired look I want....Show more →

As mentioned in the thread you posted, keep in mind that strobes don't work to "fill in shadows." The only scenario I can think of that still wouldn't applicable to 99% of sports photography is to use it for fill flash when shooting outside.

However, you're shooting inside and you want the strobes to provide a new light source that overpowers the ambient light.

Many sports photographers dial in their strobes so if they take a shot without the strobes, they get a complete dark, or nearly dark frame. I don't have an example handy, but I'm sure someone has one where their strobe didn't fire to show you.

Here is an example of possible strobe locations. Keep in mind that not every possibility is up here.

Basically, the higher you put the strobes as to power, the greater the difference you'll see as to brightness on one side of the court vs. the other from a certain strobe.

Other factors to consider are where you point the strobes, whether you bounce them or not, where you actually place them (the farther you put them away from the court, the less the difference in light between one side of the court to the other, ie the Inverse-Square Law).

I could show you some bad examples of strobe-use, but I don't want to bad-mouth potential clients.

Often when photographers use multiple strobes you'll find images where one light source feels hotter than another, or you get a mix of shadows on the floor from direct light. In your case the one light bounced feels very natural. Nicely done! .

I would add to the most recent comments that it's helpful to get at least some small part of the basket/net the player is shooting at into your photos. Just adds a bit of context that can strengthen the image. It's not necessary for every shot--probably wouldn't add anything to #2--but really could add to #s 1 and 4.